City of Shadows
by PoisonBanana
Summary: OC story. After an 'incident' shadows are left to freely roam the city of Arakawa. Only those with the power of persona can fight against them. Currently re-writing ch2-4 to third person.
1. A City Lost

**AN: Re-wrote this chapter because the first person narrative wasn't doing it very well. As usual please feel free to leave criticism.**

"I swear Kaito you sleep way more than you should." The guy sleeping on the bed paid no notice to the girl next to him. She was about 5'2" and had long blonde hair that went halfway her back. "You even slept with your uniform on? How lazy can you be?" She walked over to the curtains and pulled them open. Sunlight hit on the teen's face. He still didn't move. "Ugh, you always have to make things difficult don't you?" She walked up next to him and shoved him off the bed. He hit the ground with a thud and finally decided to open his eyes.

"Jeez Kairi, why'd ya have to do that again?" He slowly got up off the ground. "You could have just woken me up like a normal person you know?"

"Yeah…normal, sure." Kairi couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. "Well go and freshen up or something before we go to school, kay?" Kairi walked to the door. "Me and Naoki are just gonna wait for ya."

"Eh? Who let him in?" Kaito was fixing his hair in the mirror. He was 5'9" and had short black hair that was still rather messy. "You know that the folks don't like us having people over without telling them."

"Oh please, they took a vacation without us, what they don't know won't kill em." She was walking away now. "Besides they like him more than you anyway."

"_Way to boost my self esteem there Kairi." _Kaito thought to himself then sighed. Naoki has been his friend for so long now they were almost like brothers in a way. Of course his parents didn't really think so poorly of Kaito. His little sister was just doing what little sisters do best: annoy the crap out of their older brothers. Kaito took a step back from the mirror. His short hair was now slightly less messy and his uniform didn't look super wrinkled anymore. _"Good enough for me."_

When Kaito walked into the kitchen he saw his sister and friend casually talking by the counter. Naoki looked like a giant next to her since he was 5'11". His hair also went down to his shoulders and covered his left eye. Well they did look more related if hair was a thing that judged that. "Oh hey Kaito, nice to see you walking." Kaito ignored his friend's jabs and went to the fridge to find something to eat. He was feeling thirsty so he grabbed the milk jug and started chugging it.

"What the hell Kaito!?" Kairi was very visibly displeased with him. "That is so freaking gross!" Kaito then looked like he was gagging. He ran over to the sink and puked in it. "Dude what the hell! I am NOT cleaning up after you!" While Kairi was being grossed out at her brothers antics Naoki was laughing his ass off. He took the jug out from Kaito's hand and looked at the expiration date. It apparently expired a couple of weeks ago.

"Do you guys even read the labels on your food?" Naoki walked over to a hunched over Kaito and patted him on the back. "I mean what if the breakfast Kairi made me was bad? Then I'd be throwing up like you are now." When he mentioned that Kaito gave Kairi a sort of half assed glare.

"You made him breakfast but not me? That's totally not fair." Kaito took the milk from Naoki and threw it in the trash after dumping it in the sink. "Oh man this place stinks so bad."

"Well it's your fault for chugging the milk! Do you always do that? If so I am going to forbid you from ever using our milk again." Kairi walked over to Naoki and gave him a box. She also reluctantly went to Kaito and gave him one as well. "Be glad I at least made lunch for you."

Kaito looked like he was going to say something but Naoki cut him off. "Hate to interrupt but we'll be late for school if we don't leave soon." He walked over to the front door of the apartment. Kairi followed shortly after.

"But I didn't even have breakfast yet!" Kaito was reluctantly going over to them.

"Well that's just too bad now isn't it?" Kaito was now being a drama queen and faking dying of starvation by falling on the floor in the most melodramatic way possible. Naoki and Kairi ended up dragging him all the way to the bottom of the apartment. They got several funny looks.

Awhile later they were on the subway headed to school. Kaito was asleep next to his sister and Naoki was on her other side. "Hey Naoki could you look over my history work for me? I'm not sure if I did it right." She gave him that begging look. The one were you'd have to be a horrible person to turn down.

"Alright let's see what you got." She gave Naoki some papers with a lot of writing on them. "Oh it's on our city's history? You should know this already." He then proceeded to skim through the papers. "Lets see…founded near end of WWII…European dudes…asshole Asian guy…pretty little rich girl…yeah it's mostly right but you wrote down some incorrect names." He handed the papers back to her.

"Eh? But our districts are named after them. How are they wrong?" She was slightly puzzled.

"Did you sleep through elementary like Kaito did?" She gave him a slight glare and he quickly changed subject. "Anyway the names in order were Akira Izaki, Frederick Boarman, Cera Kohl, Hideki Ikeda, Erika Voss, Edward Faas, and Jack Gristma." Kaito woke up and looked over to them.

"Where the hell do you get Demishu from the name Hideki Ikeda?" He looked at Naoki as if he were some sort of loon.

"Oh that's a funny story really. You see there was a plan for him and-" Naoki looked back at Kaito to see he had fallen back asleep. "-and your not listening." He sighed and turned back to Kairi. "Just fix the names and you'll be fine." She nodded and then began to scribble things on her paper. They spent the rest of their train ride in silence.

The group had walked from the subway station and were now standing at the front of their school, Arakawa High. "I'll see the two of you after class, kay?" Kairi then ran off to chat with some of her other friends, but not before giving Naoki a goodbye hug.

"I swear sometimes I think you're her older brother." Naoki just shrugged it off. "Oh well lets get to class. I don't want teach getting on my ass again."

"You sleep through all of his lectures, of course he's going to have something against you." Kaito gave Naoki a look that said 'I don't care' as they proceeded to walk all the way to the third floor of the building. When they got to the classroom the first thing Kaito did was put his head down on his desk. (Third one back, next to the window as per usual.)

"_Yeah I may sleep through class, but when all of the test questions are so easy a second grader could answer them it's not so easy to blame me is it? Oh I think I hear him blabbing now. Perfect time to catch some Z's."_

The next thing Kaito knows is that class is over and Naoki is poking his head repeatedly. "C'mon man, class is over. Let's go fetch Kairi and head back to your place." Kaito got up out of his desk and was about to walk out of the class when he felt some sort of sensation run through his body. Naoki looked like he felt it too. "Dude did you feel that?"

"Yeah, wonder what that was all about." Before they could say anything else the intercoms in the school went off.

"_Attention. Attention please." _The voice on the intercom was a voice they didn't recognize. _"There has been an incident within the city. All citizens are to immediately report to the Gristma District."_

"The Gristma District? Why would we go there? That frugal old man never let's anyone who doesn't work for him go in there." Kaito nodded his head to what Naoki said.

"_I repeat, all citizens are to report to the Gristma District. We thank you for your cooperation and apologize for any inconvenience."_

"Guess that's one more thing we gotta do now huh?" Kaito sulked over to the door. Before he went more than a few steps he looked out the window. Standing on the roof of another building was a person in a hood and cloak. It was impossible to make out any of his features.

"What the hell!" Naoki shouted when he saw the mysterious figure generate a large purple sphere in his hand. He then aimed it at the building. "Get down Kaito!" He didn't give Kaito much time to think as he pulled him down to the ground hard. The next thing they hear is a loud boom noise. Shortly after that they see things appear to disintegrate or get destroyed. They heard several of these explosions go off, but only the first one made damage they could see. After about two minuets the noise died down. The guys the got up and looked around.

"Oh my God." The first thing to come out of Naoki's mouth was very appropriate. The room around them was completely destroyed yes, but it was what was outside the school that surprised them. Buildings as far as the eye could see were in ruins. The streets were filled with huge cracks and cars were strewn about all over the place. They could hear several people screaming from every direction. Naoki was just staring out the window in shock.

Kaito was in almost as much shock as Naoki but he was slightly recovered. "Say Naoki, does it smell like…smoke to you?" Kaito was sniffing the air and that's what it smelled like to him. Naoki came to his senses after getting punched in the back of the head by Kaito.

"Yeah it does. Those bombs must have started some fires in town." He and Kaito were walking over to the door. "I think I can see some smoke coming from below. We need to get out of here!" The floor under their feet was very hot indeed. It served as a motivator for them to go faster. They reached the stairwell and were horrified at what they saw. Flames had engulfed the entire floor below them. It would be impossible for them to get down this stairwell. The two of them turned around and ran for the stairs on the other side of the building.

"I think we can get down from here!" Kaito looked over the railing when Naoki ushered him over. They wouldn't be able to get to the first floor but they could go down to the second. When they reached the next floor they could see some bodies pinned under some fallen debris. "Kaito we gotta get outta here fast man or we'll be burnt to a crisp.!" The staircase behind them had collapsed and the flames were growing larger by the second. They ran through the halls as if their lives depended on it. (Well they did but you know what I mean.) They jumped over fallen objects, ducked under burning beams, and tried not to look at the remains of students they once knew.

They ran until they reached the first staircase they tried to go down. The stairs looked like they were going to fall at any moment. The guys wasted no time running down. When they were halfway down the stairs gave out and collapsed out from under them. A well timed jump got them away from being under the burning pile of wood, but didn't allow them to completely escape injury. "Damn it! Ah this hurts like a bitch!" Naoki had landed on his arm. Hard. The entire thing looks as if it was put in upside down. No doubt that it was probably broken.

"We just gotta go a bit farther…ah…my back…" Kaito had his back break the fall for him. He was able to somehow pull himself onto two legs so it probably wasn't severely hurt. Naoki followed him shortly after. The pair slowly limped over to the front of the school when a thought occurred to Kaito. "Dude! What happened to Kairi!? I gotta go find her!"

"Ah shit your right!" They were very anxious as they slowly made their way over to the area where her class was. When they got there her classroom was blazing. They looked in to see Kairi trapped in the corner of the room on the floor surrounded by flaming debris. "Hold on Kairi, we are gonna get you!" Naoki limped as fast as he could over towards her. She was crying her eyes out and probably didn't hear them coming over to her.

The boys struggled to move the flaming objects out of the way, but they eventually were able to. Not with out burning off most of the skin on their hands though. "Kairi it's okay now! We are here!" Kaito reached out his hand to her. She looked up and saw her brother and her friend in terrible condition. It made her want to cry more. When she was about to reached out and grab her brother's outstretched hand the ceiling above her decided it wasn't going to let that happen. A burning support beam came down and smashed right on top of her leg. She let out a shriek in pain.

"Ahshitshitshitshitshit!" Naoki was yelling very loudly while he and Kaito were trying to get Kairi out. After about ten seconds they were able to free her. They hoisted her onto Kaito's almost broken back and then they left for the front as fast as they could.

They soon left the school through the front door. The second they were a good distance away they all collapsed onto the ground. It was then that they got a good look at Kairi's leg. The spot where the wood had fallen on her was significantly burned. They could even see a good bit of the bone. "It's going to be fine now Kairi, we are here and you are safe." Kaito watched as Naoki was trying to coax his still sobbing sister.

"_No, it's not going to be fine."_ Kaito thought while looking around. The Demishu District was in ruins as far as the eye could see. _"The city is in ruins after what seems like a terrorist attack and you think we are safe!? You need to practice your lying because I don't think she's buying it." _Kaito turned around to look at his friends. Both of them were staring in his direction with looks of fear painted across their faces. He turned around the other way to see what had them so spooked. He saw a blob of darkness with a mask on its face. And boy did it look pissed. "Oh what the hell!?"

**AN: At the time of this update chapters 2-4 are still in a first person perspective. They are still readable and you can get what's going on. I'm prolly gonna rewrtie chapter 2 after I'm done with chapter 5.**

**Also I know one person is going to point out that Kairi's leg injury is unrealistic. The reason is that she is weak to fire as of several minuets ago. I'm going to leave it at that for fear of spoilers.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: If the last chapter seemed rushed that was because I wanted to get straight into the action. Also thank you Mella for being the first (and only) person to review so far. Review it if you like or give some criticism.  
**

"What the hell is that thing?!" Standing in front of me was some sort of strange black creature. It has a creepy mask on it too. It also didn't look very pleased to see us.

"Kaito man you gotta get out of there! That thing looks dangerous!" Yeah no kidding. Well as I was about to book it on outta there the thing lift its arms up and smashes them into me. The concrete didn't taste very good. Naoki was running over to help me but before he got to me the thing smacked him back into Kairi. Ouch.

So is this how we meet our end? To escape from a burning building only to be devoured by some creature outside? There must be something we can do! _"I am thou…" _What?! Who said that? _"Thou art me…" _Seriously who is talking? _"From the sea of thine soul I cometh…" _I feel much stronger now. I get up off the ground and face this creature. Suddenly there was a bright light. The next thing I know there is a dude on fire above my head. _"I am Adranus, I shall aid you in your time of need." _Well the crazy looking hunched man seems to be on my side. Suddenly I feel…stronger. Is this dude the cause of that? I feel like I know what to do.

"AGI!" When I shouted that word a ball of fire came out of my fist a hit the beast strait in the face. Well mask really, but you know. Kairi and Naoki were looking in awe at the sight before them. I was too busy looking at them to notice the ice hurdling toward me. It hit me square in the back. It was the most intense pain I had ever felt. I was pushed over to where Naoki and Kari were. I was on the ground helpless. I looked up to see what had done this. It looked like a bird of some sort. It was black and had a mask on so I had a feeling it was related to the other monster. Even with this new power I couldn't do anything. How pathetic. I look back to Naoki. He had a strange look on his face. Almost as if he were hearing things. Oh don't tell me…

The bird launched another ice shard at me. I thought for sure I was done for. Suddenly Naoki jumps right in front of me. He took that hit head on and it didn't even look like it hurt more than being poked at. "Domar! Mudo!" A guy appeared over his head. Well I say guy but really it was a person in the shoddiest looking armor I had ever seen. Oh and his body was completely charred too. When Naoki said that word some sort of evil looking runes appeared under the bird. The next instant it vanished. Holy crap. This victory was short lived however as another one of those creatures appeared. This one looked like a muscular guy. It ran up to Naoki and punted him right into me. OUCH.

Kairi hobbled her way onto one knee. She looked really determined. Oh God she doesn't have one too does she!? "Aceso! Garu!" The woman that appeared above looked to be a priestess of some sort. Suddenly a blast of green wind smash right into the buff looking monster. She did it three more times just to be sure. She then collapsed next to us on the ground.

Things were not looking good for us. Plenty more monsters were closing in on us. Doesn't matter what powers we have, we are in no shape to fight. "Megidola!" Who the hell shouted that? Doesn't matter. One huge purple nuke-like explosion later and all the creatures were gone. "That was close." You think? "Couldn't have let some new persona users die before they could entertain me." I looked up to see who was talking. It was a guy in a hood and cloak. "Better fix you up now so you can play later." That's sounds weird. "Mediarahan!" A warm light enveloped our bodies. All of the wounds we had sustained over the course of today had miraculously healed. Naoki didn't look very happy about it.

"You! You're the one who did this!" Oh damn he was. "You just murdered hundreds of people! Why would you help us?!"

"Because it would be so wasteful if you died to weak shadows such as those." Shadows? Does he mean the strange monsters that were attacking us? "I mean sure, your persona might be weak now but eventually they will grow much stronger." Persona? I take it that he's referring to the people who appeared over our heads.

"Why?! Why would you kill so many people?!" She looks pissed. So am I.

"Well to be fair I suppose I didn't _have_ to kill them." This guy is asking for an ass whooping. "But since I did there are now more shadows then ever running through this dreadful town! Fun isn't it?"

"That's horrible!" Seriously how messed up is this guy?

"You may think that now but in time you'll agree." No. I really doubt that I would ever agree with that. But I gotta wonder what killing people has to do with making more shadows. "You should think quieter next time." Damn it. "But since your so curious I'll explain it for you!" Don't sound so exited about it. "You see, a shadow is a person's…darker self. They represent all the bad things people do everyday. People normally do a good job of keeping their bad selves suppressed. But since they are dead now their shadows are left to freely do as they please! Marvelous isn't it?"

"No, it's revolting." Well said Naoki.

"Really now? You sure seemed eager to use that power to your advantage earlier."

"Eh? But didn't you call them personas or something?" She brings up a good point.

"Persona and shadows are two sides of the same coin my friends!" Don't call me your friend you murderer! "They are merely tamed shadows!" So they are the same as those black monsters? Seems a little far fetched. But after all that's happened today it's not all that surprising

"So were you the guy responsible for the 'incident' in the Gristma District?" I bet he is.

"Partially." Not what I expected. "If you want all the details your gonna have to ask Gristy himself!" Gristy? I would assume he means Gristma. Kind of weird how he called him that. "Now is there anymore of my knowledge you want shared?"

I asked the first question that came to my mind. "Why and how do we have our persona?"

"Well I think it's because the 'forces that may be' decided that you had the potential. I just merely provided it with a convenient way to come out." That…doesn't really answer the question at all. "Well I would love to spend the rest of my day chatting with teenagers but sadly I don't have the time." Don't have the time? What else could he possibly have to do? "I'll leave you guys to wander about this ruinous district on your own. I got me some Chaos to spread!"

"Wait!" To late. He muttered some word and then disappeared before our eyes. "Dammit he was right there! A murderer just casually talking with us like nothing happened! I swear we shoulda beat the shit out of him for what he did!"

"Naoki I know you are mad but I honestly think he could have killed us without a problem." I hate to admit it but she is right. As much as I would have enjoyed beating that guy to a pulp I know we would lose super easily.

"Well then let's head on over to the Gristma District and see if we can find anything out." Good plan Naoki. Except for the fact that even under normal circumstances it would take us at least a good three hours of walking to get there from here. But with how the Demishu District is now…that time could easily double. It would take even longer if we ran into any shadows. "We'd better move now if we want to get there before the sun goes down." Yeah I wouldn't want to run through a destroyed city in night. Or day for that matter.

**AN: And another chapter is done! The main cast has their persona now and they have met with one of the antagonists! Again, since Kaito wasn't the best describer I'll give you a more in depth look at the original persona.**

**Adranus appears to be a hunched guy with fire coming off his body. His hair is messy and only has one sandal on. His clothes are standard Roman robes.**

**Aceso has a priestess robe on and black hair that is hard to see under her hat.**

**Domar has an almost completely burned body and wears broken armor. He has a sword that is dull and a crown devoid of any adornments.**

**What is this? Incredibly lame persona? How can this be! Well they do look A LOT more badass when they ascend. Please tell me what you think of the story so far.**


	3. Chapter 3

We have only been walking for about half an hour now and my legs were already killing me. I really wish public transportation was functioning. Then again with cars littering the street and giant cracks in the streets it's doubtful that they would get very far anyway. "You know, usually when a huge disaster happens there is at least _some _sort of news copter in the sky." She does bring up a good point. The skies don't have a single thing in them. I don't even hear anything that sounds like a helicopter.

"Yeah, after all the media loves profiting off of disasters like this." Didn't know he hated the media. "I don't hear any sirens either." That is stranger still. In a disaster like this usually police and paramedics are everywhere. Then it hit me.

"Aren't all of the city's major police stations and hospitals located in this district?" I didn't want to say it, but it was true. "That bastard probably targeted Demishu because it housed the most aid to the citizens." That guy is pure evil.

"Do you think the other districts are in this bad of shape?" She was looking pretty down.

"I would imagine that he hit them after he took care of Demishu." Way to think positive Naoki. "I mean why would he only target one district? It wouldn't make any sense." Depressing thought. "While we are on the subject of what isn't here, have you guys noticed that we haven't seen anyone else at all?"

"You don't think that they are all dead do you?" I would hope not, but with the way things look right now I would have to say that's very plausible.

"Well Gristma ordered everyone to go to his district didn't he? Maybe some of the people made it there." Those people would have to be very fast. So far we have had to stop because of shadows three times. I mean since we had our persona we took care of them quickly, but if someone who didn't have one ran into them they would be as good as dead. Speaking of persona, I've noticed some differences between ours.

My persona seems to use fire to defeat my foes. It also enabled me to be quite the hard hitter. Of course one ice attack and I would be on the floor, but that is where Naoki comes in. His persona is resistant to ice based attacks and can dish them out as well. He also seems to know a dark based attack. Most of the time it doesn't really do anything, but if it does hit the shadows instantly die. Pretty useful stuff. Last but not least is Kairi's persona. She uses wind attacks to defeat shadows. She also knows some light healing magic. Not as good as that asshat's heals, but it is enough for now. She can't take any fire hits without going down, but lucky for her I'm pretty strong against them.

"Say, isn't that an entrance into the subway over there?" She was pointing to some stairs going down. Might not be the worst idea.

"Well that could work but…" But what? "We don't know how stable it is down there." Aw but it would be so much faster! "Besides even if we can get through there are going to be trains on the tracks you know." I'm sure we could work around that.

"C'mon Naoki it would practically cut our walking time in half!" Please listen to reason on this one. I just wanna get there as fast as we can.

"Pretty please?" Oh the puppy dog look. That'll get him. Wait Naoki why do you look so compliant now? Eh whatever gets us there faster I suppose.

"Since the two of you seem so determined to go down there I guess I'd better go also. Don't say I didn't warn you though." You didn't warn me. Heh heh.

Well the subway was just as I had expected it to be. Lights were flickering and some parts of the walls were collapsed. I really hope the ceiling doesn't fall on us. Is walking on the tracks even safe? "What happened to your enthusiasm? You don't seem so eager now." Well what if a train comes or shadows sneak up on us or something? "Just hurry up will ya?" Oh look, they are already walking down the tracks. I swear they are so impatient sometimes.

Well I was going to follow them until I heard something coming down the tracks. I turned around and it looked to be a pair of…dice? There are dice shadows? I didn't seem to care about me and it went strait for Naoki and Kairi. "Look out guys!" They turned around to see a pair of dice floating behind them. Kairi looked like she was going to cast a garu spell but before she could the dice made it's move. It got slightly bigger and then BOOM. The thing freaking exploded. What the hell! "You guys ok?!" When the smoke cleared I saw that it brought the ceiling down with it.

"As ok as we can be right now." I guess that's good. "Looks like we are split up though." Oh great. "We are gonna keep going down till we reach the next platform. We'll meet you over there."

"You guys are going to get there like twenty minuets faster than I will! What are you going to do when you get there?"

"Oh well I was thinking of taking a breather. All this walking is super tiring." Great. I got to walk for forty more minuets and they get to take it easy. Seems totally fair. "Well we'd better get going! Bye!" Geez it's almost like she wants me gone or something. Well back up the stairs I go.

I was walking for maybe five minuets when I heard something. It sounded like someone yelling really loudly. I ran over to where the sounds were coming from to see some punk looking guy cornered by a shadow. This one was a freaking tank. Yeah, a tank. "Adranus! Agi!" I launched the ball of fire at the tank. It didn't seem fazed at all. "Okay then take this! Bash!" Adranus appeared and smacked the tank. It didn't look like it was hurt very much. At the very least I diverted the tank's attention away from the punk and toward me. The shadow then fired off a bolt of electricity. It hit me suare on and hurt quite considerably. All right time for some different tactics. "Dude! Follow me if you want to live!" This thing was to strong for me to handle alone. I didn't even check to see if the guy was following me. Some protector I am huh? Well after running for a minuet strait I stopped to look back. The punk was right behind me and the shadow nowhere to be seen. I guess it would take awhile for it to catch up. It didn't seem very fast. "Alright we should be safe now. You should head over to the Gristma District. It's safe there."

"Like hell I'm going there!" What? "You saw those things right? What if I met more of them? I'd be toast!" Yeah he probably would have died if I hadn't have interfered. "I'm gonna stick with you for awhile."

"Alright. Name's Kaito Suzuki."

"Shou Takeishi."

"The first thing we are going to do is go over to the subway station. We are going to get my friend and my sister and then head for the Gristma District."

"Sister?" Please tell me he isn't a perv. "Say, how well 'equipped' is she?" Great. A pervert. Just what I need. Hmmm random punk who loves leather has a purple mohawk AND a nose piercing? Sounds like the absolute last person I want around my sister.

"No she's a flat stack." Did I really say that about my own sister? "Not your type." She would kill me if she ever heard me say that.

"Ah well, they can't all be winners." Way to be a dick about it. "Well let's get going then!" Should I really have saved this guy?

_Meanwhile_

"Jeez it's so dark down here! Where's Kaito when you need him?"

"Probably above us in the streets somewhere."

"You know what I me- AHHH!"

"Did you trip _again_ Kairi?"

"Yeah…"

"Alright let me help you up."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"Say Naoki."

"Hmmm?"

"I feel like I really want to punch Kaito in the face right now."

"Eh? Why?"

"I dunno I ju-AHHH!"

*sigh*

**AN: I can't think of anything to say in this note. Uh how well would someone do with the name 'wet placenta'? No that's not it. Well I can't remember. Anyway review or leave some criticism below please.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Thanks for the constructive criticism as it does help. If you are wondering why it was just dialogue in the meanwhile section that's because Kaito wasn't around to observe what they were doing. Anyway not much action this chapter, but that might not be a bad thing?**

"So…how's it going?" If this guy insisted on being a tag a long then maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to get to know him a bit better. "Go to school around here or…something?"

"If I ever showed up to school I think I would be a second year." Oh so he is a school skipper as well. Just gets better and better. "Say, what district do you live in?"

"Well I live in Centa." Why would this guy care about that? Maybe he's also trying to get to know me?

"Good. If you were one of those pricks up in Erima then I might have had to beat the shit outta you and make off with your money." Okay first things first I can very easily say that you would lose that fight mister tough guy. But seriously, this guy would mug the guy that saved his life? I don't think that's a good character quality.

"So I take it you live in the Akira District?" It would make sense. The Akira District has so many poor people and criminals that it's easy to imagine him hating the people of Erima just because they are wealthy.

"Damn straight son!" I'm older than you bud. "That's not a problem is it?" Oh great, he takes pride in being a delinquent.

"No, it's not really a problem." It will be if you try anything though.

"Say, I've been meaning to ask this for a bit now." Yeah? "What was with that burning dude that you had!?" Oh, looks like I get to explain persona. "I mean he shot fire and everything! Do you think I can do that too?" I hope not. You would probably use it to beat someone down.

"Well that 'burning dude' I had is called a persona. I actually don't know much about them myself, but they do come in handy. As for if you can do it too…maybe? I mean you are alive still so that has to count for something."

"Dude that would be so sweet!" Aaaaaand I gave him encouragement. Good one me. "If I had one I'm sure it would be something super cool! Like a bear with a machine gun or a seven legged rhino!" How is that even awesome?

"Sorry to say but you don't get to pick what they are." Please stop shouting too. It might attract attention.

"All the better!" Huh? "That way it's a surprise and it's coolness will even surprise me!" This guy is not taking this very seriously is he? Oh well.

"Yeah I'm sure it will be super amazing." He's already hyped anyway, giving him more encouragement isn't gonna change much. "But for now, stay behind me if we see anymore shadows."

"Is that what that monster was? A shadow?" Oh yeah I guess I did forget to mention that.

"Apparently they are the darker parts of human nature." I don't really get it myself so I shouldn't be the one to explain it. "Don't ask what that means because I have no idea myself."

"They are sure as hell strong though!" Eh? "I mean, that tank shrugged off your attacks like they were nothing!" Way to make me feel good buddy.

"Well most of them aren't that strong." At least I hope not. "We just got unlucky with that one."

"If you say so man." What is that supposed to mean? "Maybe if you were strong like me you coulda taken it down." Well it's even more official. This guy is a huge dick. Kairi and Naoki got it so easy. "So anyway, maybe you need-" I stopped paying attention after that.

_Meanwhile_

"Say Naoki, is that a train over there?" Kairi and Naoki were walking down the tracks for about fifteen minuets when their path was blocked by a stopped train. "It's fallen over so I don't think we can go around it."

"Well we can go in it through the door in the back." Naoki didn't really want to go through the train. Given how it's fallen over it's very probable that all of the people inside are dead.

Kairi went up to try and open the door. Try because she wasn't strong enough to pry it open. "Naoki could you open this for me?"

"Yeah sure." He went up to the door and after a bit of pushing he finally got it open.

"Could you help me up? It's a bit high for me." She walked over next to him.

"Yeah okay." It was then that Naoki went from being a boy to being a man. And by that I mean that school uniforms maybe should stop including skirts. After helping her up he hauled himself into the train as well.

The inside of the train was just how they had expected it to be. Passenger's belongings were all over the place. There was even a couple of bodies. Walking through here was going to be even worse since the train was tilted.

"This is just so horrible." She was looking at some of the people. "How anyone could so easily kill hundreds of people without feeling any remorse is beyond me."

"Some people are just beyond evil." Naoki walked over to Kairi. "Let's just get out of here as soon as possible." They started walking through the train together in silence. Neither of them wanted to be there. Eventually they made it to the front car of the train. Since the train was tilted the door to leave was above them. Naoki opened it up and lifted Kairi through it. He wouldn't tell her what he could see for fear of getting smacked.

When they jumped off of the train they could see what looked like remains of shadows scattered about. "Did the train hit some shadows or something?" Kairi walked over to some of the shadow remains.

"It seems that way to me. I mean that could also explain the condition of the train." He started walking down the tracks. "I think I can almost see the platform up ahead."

"That's good. My legs are killing me!" And so their not so exiting adventures in the subway ended.

**AN: Notice the switch to third person during the second half? I'm strongly considering doing that to all of the other chapters so far. The whole first person thing was an experiment and it clearly isn't going over well. As always feel free to criticize in a review. **


	5. New Persona and Outfits

**AN: Yay for school to keep my life busy. Anyways here's a new chapter**

Shou and Kaito continued on their walk through the ruins of Demishu. The former was still gushing over his awesomeness and nonexistent Persona while the later was trying his best to just block out everything Shou was saying. They were getting close to the meet up point where he hoped he would find his comrades. Kaito was counting every second like it would make them get there faster. While they were walking, the two stopped dead in their tracks. A pair of shadows were in the middle of the road, blocking the way forward. They looked like tables with objects floating above them.

"Alright! Time for you to do your thing, buddy!" And with that Shou hid himself behind Kaito to let him do the dirty work for him.

"Alright then." Kaito took a step toward the tables. "Adranus! Use Agi!"

Adranus appeared above Kaito's head, and shot a small fireball at one of the tables. The table was still standing and very displeased with Kaito. The tables retaliated with some electric attacks. Kaito dodged one of them but the other hit him straight on. "Ugh, that hurt a bit! Wish Kairi were here…"

Even though he was complaining, he still summoned Adranus to launch another Agi at the tables. His fire had managed to defeat one of them. "Okay...things are looking good for me." Or at least, they were. A powerful lightning bolt had struck Kaito from behind and sent him to the floor. He and Shou looked behind them to see one of the tank shadows had joined the fray. "Oh for the love of God…" Kaito had nothing that could deal with that tank. It was strong against everything he could throw at it. "Shou! We have to bolt, NOW!"

"I'm way ahead of you!" Shou had already started fleeing the second he saw the tank. Kaito made a mental note to get back at him later. He noticed the tank getting ready to fire off another electric attack, so he scrambled as fast as he could to try and get away. "Kaito dude! H-H-Help me!" Shou had come running back to him, alas with more Shadows behind him. They were now officially outnumbered two to five. Or rather, one to five, since Shou was still cowering behind Kaito.

Kaito was being pelted with bolts from both sides and was struggling to stay on his feet. He knew that he wouldn't be able to last much longer. Then he turned around and noticed Shou was clutching his head in pain. Which was strange, since he hadn't been hit yet. Suddenly a dazzling light blinded Kaito, and the next thing he knew there was a wolf-like being hovering above Shou's head. The beast appeared to be ill or wounded, since patches of it's fur were missing. Most strikingly, half of it's tail was gone.

"This power...it's amazing! Skoll! Use Swift Strike!"All of the enemies were trashed about by Skoll's power. The only shadow left standing was the tank. "Oh shit...looks like he's strong against physical attacks."

"Well...do you have any magic then?" Kaito was feeling more confident, now that they were the ones with the advantage.

"You bet I do! Skoll, use Zio!" Skoll appeared above his head and launched a bolt of lightning at the tank. Instead of hurting the tank however, the bolt bounced of it and hit Shou...right where it hurts. "Oh God! Why!?" He was clutching his crotch whilst rolling on the ground in pain. Kaito could only sigh. Their good luck was perhaps running out, if Shou had nothing that could hurt the shadow effectively.

"Shou, if we want to kill this thing, we are going to have to bash it's brains out together." Kaito said. Shou stood up, still wincing in pain. "And that is right up your alley, isn't it?"

"This thing is gonna pay for that!" He seemed to have completely ignored what Kaito had said since he ran up to the tank and started punching it, unsuprisingly not doing much of anything. The tank Shadow in response shot out a Mazio spell which Kaito managed to avoid via side step. Shou on the other had had the spell hit him directly, and was sent flying into a trash can. "Oww…this guy packs a punch…"

"Shou listen to me! If we want to win we need to both start beating the shit out of thing! Got it?!" Kaito ran to Shou and pulled him off the ground. "On my mark! Okay?" Shou reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"Three…" They started running to the tank.

"Two…" The shadow fired off a Zionga at Shou, who luckily stumbled on some rocks, causing the bolt to fly right over him.

"One!"

"Skoll! Single Shot!"

"Adranus! Bash!"

Their combined attack was strong enough to push the tank back a few feet. Unfortunately, it was still standing. The Shadow then began to charge up for a more powerful attack. Kaito and Shou launched another combined attack, which pushed the shadow back slightly. The tank had finished charging, and let off a powerful Mazio attack. Neither of them could dodge the bolts and were sent into the ground.

"K-Kaito you see…smoke from the tank?" Shou said, in pain.

"Y-Yeah, I think w-we have it on…the ropes." The shadow was indeed slowing down and had smoke coming off the top of it. "One more combo should finish it off." The two of them got off the ground to prepare one last assault. They ran up to the tank shadow and unleashed their physical attacks on it. After wailing on it enough it dissolved into the ground like the previous Shadows.

"That was awesome!" Shou was practically dancing around Kaito. "Did you see how much I wrecked face?! I'm awesome!"

"Wel...I believe you mean that we wrecked face, right?" Kaito sighed as his companion was prancing about like a ninny.

"Hm? Oh yeah I guess you did help a little bit." Kaito wasn't even going to argue with him - it just wasn't worth the effort. "But man, I am exhausted."

Kaito began to feel tired when he mentioned it. He also smelt something that reminded him of bacon. He looked at his arm and saw that a lot of his flesh had been charred by the lightning. Looking at Shou his purple mohawk was ruined as all his hairs were standing on end. Kaito assumed that his hair looked just as bad. "Lets go find Kairi and get patched up."

The two of them walked for several more minutes before spotting their friends. Naoki was sitting on a bench while Kairi was lying down with her head in his lap.

Naoki noticed Kaito and waved him over. "Dude, Kaito! What the heck happened to you man!? And who's your friend?" He abruptly stood up, which made Kairi fall to the ground. He helped her up and tried to ignore her angry grumbling.

"We just went through hell trying to get here. No biggie really." The sarcasm in Kaito's voice was easily detectable. "Anyways this is Shou. Shou, these two are Kairi and Naoki, other Persona users."

"Yo! I heard great things about you two! Would ya mind patching us up, doc?" Shou grabbed both of their hands and was shaking them rather energetically. Kairi rolled her eyes and Naoki looked disgusted. When he backed off, Kairi cast a few Dia's on them and they were as good as new. "Thank you kindly, miss." At least he could act polite enough.

After explaining what had happened to them, Kaito and Shou felt very good about themselves.

"Oh, those tanks? They were so weak! We had no trouble at all with the ones we had encountered. They were so weak they died in a couple of hits!" And with Kairi's statement their self-esteem had dropped all the way to zero.

"Are you two going to wallow in your own pity, or are you going to go with us to Gristma?" They looked up to see Kairi and Naoki had already started walking ahead of them. They quickly scrambled to catch up to them.

The party had continued walking until Shou had told everyone to stop. "Guys, look! It's a store! Think of how many things we could get!"

"Are you suggesting…theft?" Kairi had never broken the law before. The prospect of stealing didn't sit well with her at all. "That's wrong, Shou!"

"Well, if we don't take anythin, chances are someone else will. Besides, the owner's probably dead anyway." They reluctantly followed Shou into the small store. "Hmm...it's not as impressive as the places in the shopping district, but it'll do. At least we can get you guys out of those awful uniforms."

"And what's so bad about our uniforms?" Naoki apparently had more school pride then he was given credit for.

"Let's see...besides the fact they have tears and burns all over them, I also think that they look completely hideous." Shou did bring up a good point, as their school uniforms were in pretty bad condition. Everyone decided that they would get some news clothes. Kaito had picked out a grey t-shirt with some new jeans. Naoki had gotten a red sweatshirt and some white jeans. Kairi picked out a pink shirt with a panda on it as well as some grey sweatpants. While the others were busy changing outfits, Shou was trying to open the cash register to get some easy money. He got it open, but to his disappointment there was no money left inside. He pilfered some snacks and cigarettes instead. "Alright, you guys good now?"

"Yeah, we're good to go." Naoki had noticed the cigarettes Shou was putting into his leather jacket. He didn't say anything, but he did cast a disapproving glare Shou's way. "Alright. Let's leave this place." And so, the band of heroes moved ever closer to the Gristma District.

**AN: Now that chapter took awhile to write. Leave a review down below if you want. Also thank you Sraosha for your help.**


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